Cablevision Faces Second Amended Program-Access Complaint
Cablevision faces a second complaint under revised program-access rules that recently took effect. AT&T Wednesday made good on its threat last month to make an amended complaint under the new rules if the cable operator and Madison Square Garden, spun off from Cablevision, wouldn’t let the telco carry in HD two New York-area regional sports networks (RSNs) in Connecticut. Verizon filed a similar amended complaint in June, and commission officials predicted renewed attention by staffers over the withholding from rivals of channels affiliated with cable operators (CD June 29 p6).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
AT&T asked the defendants for access to the HD feeds of MSG and MSG Plus on June 24, three days after the new rules took effect, the telco said in the FCC filing. “Notwithstanding the Commission’s unequivocal findings in the 2010 Program Access Order regarding the importance of RSN programing -- and, in particular, the HD feeds of such programing -- on July 6, 2010, Defendants once again rejected AT&T’s request to license that programing,” it said. Cablevision and Madison Square Garden engaged in unfair acts after that order took effect, AT&T said.
The complaint can be considered under a rebuttable presumption that unfair withholding of an RSN significantly harms competition, AT&T continued. Cablevision and Madison Square Garden contend the telco’s service hasn’t been significantly hurt by refusal of carriage, it noted. That’s wrong, and “AT&T has offered substantial evidence showing that its inability to offer the requested programing has impaired its ability to attract and retain customers in Connecticut,” the complaint said. The program access order found that RSN programming is highly valued by consumers, and there’s “categorical evidence that the denial of access to such programing hinders the ability of new entrants, like AT&T, to compete with vertically integrated cable incumbents like Cablevision,” the filing said.
Madison Square Garden follows federal rules, a spokesman said. “We are pleased to have AT&T as a customer and to provide U-verse subscribers in Connecticut with access to every single game on MSG and MSG Plus.” Cablevision said it’s not to blame and cited the difference in size between it and AT&T. “It should be clear by now that whatever problems AT&T is having in the marketplace has nothing to do with a lack of HD programming,” a spokeswoman for the cable operator said. “The idea that a phone company nearly 20 times our size needs a regulatory bailout is absurd.”